This isn't just a 7c problem. I play a 10c in transitional tunings and need to change the top couple of courses for viel ton tuning. My way of working is to concentrate on pieces for your current stringing. Once you've exhausted that repertoire, restring and retune for another repertoire.
The alternative is to have several identical lutes in different tunings and a roadie to keep them in tune for you when you're gigging :o) Bill From: Sam Chapman <[email protected]> To: Joshua Burkholder <[email protected]> Cc: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, 2 May 2012, 22:55 Subject: [LUTE] Re: Re-tuning the diapason of a 7c Hi Joshua, I have a 7-course lute and I usually tune the 7th course to D. However, I keep an extra 7th course in the case, and if I'm playing lots of music where I need the 7th course in F I simply change it over. It takes about 5 minutes to change the course, and if you use plain gut strings they tune up and keep their tuning (more or less) in a matter of minutes. I'm fussy about string tensions, so I wouldn't attempt to retune the same strings. Good luck with your lute playing - I think a 7-course instrument is a great place to start! Sam On 2 May 2012 17:39, Joshua Burkholder <[1][email protected]> wrote: > Dear lute-listers, > > A question from a beginner: > > First to introduce myself, my name is Joshua and I've been playing the lute for several months now; I have been on the list for a couple weeks and am really enjoying following your discussions. I have a rental 7-course and I am now in the process of taking the plunge and buying a lute of my own. After much reading, pondering and agonizing over the best number of courses to start with, I've come to the conclusion that a 7-course best suits my needs. So onto to my question: > > I know that some people re-tune the 7th course from D to F as needed, but on my rental lute this seems quite impossible. The diapason is stung to F and if I drop it down to D it becomes far too wobbly and flabby. From this I assume that if I were to restring it to D, which I'd prefer on the whole, it would likewise be impossible to raise it to F. Currently the lute is strung with Pyramid strings so the basses are metal wound. Is it only possible to change from D to F on the same string if one uses gut strings (Poulton remarks to this effect in her tutor that if it's strung to be tuned at D "it will only be possible to raise it to F if gut strings are used")? Otherwise I have to re-string? Or does someone use some other stringing solution, besides just keeping it D and fingering the third fret for F (or buying an 8-course lute...)? I've read enough about stringing lutes to understand that it will be a while before I understand anything about stringing lutes... > > Thank you for taking the time to help out a newcomer. > > Best wishes, > > Joshua > > > > > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > [2]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html -- Sam Chapman Oetlingerstrasse 65 4057 Basel (0041) 79 530 39 91 -- References 1. mailto:[email protected] 2. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
